Horror of armed home invasion

While the Carstens were staring death in the eye, they prayed to God and sang vociferously.
Edgemead’s Charlene Carstens (54) and her husband, Peter, were recently held at gunpoint by three house robbers.
The couple turned to their Saviour when they were lost in the clutches of terror.
Charlene shared their harrowing tale with TygerBurger last week and hopes that this will urge readers to mind their surroundings and refrain from heroic acts of madness.
“Just give whatever they’re asking for,” pleads Charlene.
She recounts the tale which unfolded in their house last week Saturday.
“Peter and I went out to dinner with some friends and must have left there at 21:30. We pulled up in our driveway and there was nobody in sight. He unlocked the garage and the front door and went in the house while I parked the car. I couldn’t find my cellphone, so I asked him to ring it while I waited.”
Charlene was a bit irritated when her husband seemingly didn’t do what she asked of him and went into the house insisting that he “phones her phone”.
“The words weren’t even out of my mouth when I saw one guy threatening him and saying: ‘Pappa, your wallet, your rings, get on the floor!’ They looked just like security guards! I first thought they were there to warn us about something. One of the men cocked his gun and put it against Peter’s head and when I looked behind me another man pointed a gun at me and yelled: ‘Don’t look at me!’”
The third robber were apparently engrossed in inspecting the house.
Charlene had to assure the robbers that there was no one else present.
This in itself was a blessing, because normally their daughter, Andrea, would have been home as well.
Charlene and Peter were forced on to the kitchen floor and had to hand over their wallets, cellphones and jewellery. They were also asked where the safe and firearms are hidden, but the Carstens don’t possess any of these.
“I thought, ‘Wow … This is it …’ The men just kept on saying they were going to shoot us. We were gripped in absolute fear. My husband started hyper-ventilating or having a panic-attack and I started praying and singing, but they didn’t like that,” she says, She prayed: “Dear God just help us, be with us, help us get through this and if this is it, please forgive me!’”
She then sang “Great is our Faithfulness”.
Peter started breathing normally again when he also prayed out loud – the robbers kept on telling them to shut up.
The robbers loaded items into their vehicle. All this took about 20 minutes, but it felt like a lifetime to the Carstens.
When the robbers left the premises Charlene pressed the panic button alerting both the security guards and the police.
“I say just do whatever the these criminals demand,” Charlene urges.

***DISCLAIMER: THIS ARTICLE AND PHOTO WERE PUBLISHED IN TYGERBURGER, A CAPE TOWN BASED MEDIA24 COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER. NEITHER MAY BE DUPLICATED WITHOUT ACCREDITING THE SOURCE – TYGERBURGER, MEDIA24.***